rabble.ca - Elections Albertahttps://rabble.ca/category/tags-issues/elections-alberta
enDefeated in UCP nomination battle, Highwood MLA takes complaint to Elections Albertahttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/12/defeated-ucp-nomination-battle-highwood-mla-takes-complaint
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/AndersonMain.jpg?itok=1MTxoHMi" width="1180" height="600" alt="UCP MLA Wayne Anderson (Photo: Facebook)." title="UCP MLA Wayne Anderson (Photo: Facebook)." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Is it just seasonal, or is this the new normal?</p>
<p>No, I'm not talking about the weather and climate change.</p>
<p>I'm talking about the daily stream of revelations about unsavoury goings on inside Alberta's United Conservative Party under the leadership of Jason Kenney.</p>
<p>Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson has <a href="https://www.highriveronline.com/local/anderson-files-complaint-with-elections-alberta" target="_blank">filed a formal complaint with Elections Alberta</a> about the conduct of the UCP nomination vote he lost in October to the Opposition party's former constituency association president, RJ Sigurdson.</p>
<p>To request the investigation, the former Wildrose MLA used legislation introduced by the NDP that imposes some legal order on party nomination votes, which in the electoral Wild West of old were considered purely internal affairs.</p>
<p>Anderson defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Carrie Fischer in the May 2015 general election in the riding just south of Calgary. Fischer, in turn, had defeated former Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith for the PC nomination after Smith had crossed the floor to join the PCs the year before -- undoubtedly one of the factors that led to the election of an NDP majority in 2015.</p>
<p>Both Fisher and Anderson, who as a sitting MLA should reasonably have expected to win the nomination, ran for the UCP nomination -- <a href="https://www.westernwheel.com/article/sigurdson-wins-highwood-ucp-nomination-20181016" target="_blank">losing to Sigurdson on Oct. 16</a>.</p>
<p>Anderson told <em>High River Online</em> he'd complained to the party before going to Elections Alberta.</p>
<p>For her part, <a href="https://www.highriveronline.com/local/fischer-asking-questions-about-validity-of-nomination-process" target="_blank">the news site quoted Fischer</a> Monday saying the nomination process "raised red flags" with her supporters and that her seven-page letter of complaint to the UCP did not receive "the respect of a proper investigation."</p>
<p>The party says it reviewed the complaints -- which <a href="https://www.westernwheel.com/article/candidates-question-ucp-nomination-race-20181211" target="_blank">included</a> preferential access to membership lists by one candidate and a lack of polling stations in towns where Fischer's support was strong -- but found no wrongdoing.</p>
<p>"I gave a lot of time and energy to this party," Ms. Fischer told <em>High River Online</em>. "I gave a lot of time and energy through this nomination process. I put my name on a ballot for them. I was hoping that that would give me some consideration when I'm bringing allegations and evidence to them. I had hoped that they would have at least considered it seriously."</p>
<p>Fischer is pondering an appeal to the party.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Anderson seems also to have played a role in <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/ucp-leadership-candidate-ran-a-kamikaze-mission-to-destroy-jason-kenneys-rival-leaked-audio-suggests/" target="_blank">identifying some of the speakers</a> in the recording that surfaced Monday night revealing Jeff Callaway's part in Jason Kenney's successful plan to ensure he and not former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean won the UCP leadership.</p>
<p><em>Press Progress</em> reported yesterday that the voices in the recording belonged to "Callaway campaign organizer Wendy Adam in a conversation with her husband Udo and an unnamed male," naming Mr. Anderson as the source of the IDs.</p>
<p>As a candidate in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race, Callaway's job turns out not to have been to make a serious effort actually to lead the merged Wildrose-Progressive Conservative entity, but to send former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean's campaign to the bottom.</p>
<p>This was widely believed to be the case at the time, but in the absence of evidence, the story petered out.</p>
<p>Now the leaked audio recording shows how the plan actually worked. One voice describes Callaway's effort as a "Kamikaze run," a reference to the human-piloted suicide bombs used by the Japanese military in its last desperate defence of the country at the end of the Second World War.</p>
<p>"Jeff will be able to say things about Brian Jean that Jason Kenney cannot," says the voice identified as Adam's.</p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/callaway-pulls-out-of-ucp-leadership-race-backs-kenney" target="_blank">Callaway told the <em>Calgary Herald</em> he made no deals with Kenney</a>, either before launching his campaign or when he decided to withdraw from the race and ask his supporters to vote for Kenney.</p>
<p>Contacted by <em>Press Progress</em>, Adam refused to comment other than to say that Anderson "should elaborate on what else he knows about the recording of 'myself, my husband and another individual.'"</p>
<p>Fortunately for Kenney, none of this seems to have aroused any interest among mainstream media.</p>
<p>In Fort McMurray, meanwhile, Jean appears to be stewing -- and blaming everything on Quebec.</p>
<p>On Dec. 8, Jean (rhymes with poutine) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianJeanAB/status/1071613409756659714" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that "it's time to start boycotting Quebec products here in Alberta" because, you know, Quebec gets equalization payments and Quebec Premier François Legault is reported to have said at the First Ministers' meeting in Montreal that "there's no social acceptability" for the Energy East pipeline in his province.</p>
<p>It's actually quite unclear what Legault meant. And as political strategies go, Jean's Big Idea is fairly lame. After all, since there are no provincial labelling rules, it might be difficult to determine just what is made where. And Legault, who became premier only in October, can hardly be blamed for the failure of Energy East a year earlier.</p>
<p>However, in fairness to the former MP for Fort McMurray -- who like Kenney voted in Parliament for the equalization formula he's now complaining loudly about -- it's entirely consistent with his misrepresentation of Canadian equalization policy over several years.</p>
<p>What do you want to bet the biggest victims of this scheme will be restaurants selling poutine made from Alberta potatoes, cheese and processed gravy? In the great Alberta tradition, the restaurateurs will then blame their troubles on the NDP for raising the minimum wage.</p>
<p><em>David Climenhaga, author of the Alberta Diary blog, is a journalist, author, journalism teacher, poet and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://AlbertaPolitics.ca/" target="_blank">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Photo: Facebook</em></p>
<p><em>Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/">Support</a> rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/support%20sustainable%20media.png" /></a></em></p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 12 Dec 2018 17:35:20 +0000djclimenhaga154676 at https://rabble.cahttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/12/defeated-ucp-nomination-battle-highwood-mla-takes-complaint#commentsLeaked fundraising letter raises questions about election laws, Jason Kenney's promises https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/10/leaked-fundraising-letter-raises-questions-about-election-laws
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/Kenney-Truck.png?itok=I0W2QqCu" width="1180" height="600" alt="United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney (Photo: Jason Kenney Instagram account)." title="United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney (Photo: Jason Kenney Instagram account)." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>So, who're ya gonna believe?</p>
<p>Jason Kenney? Or Alberta's used car dealers?</p>
<p>I'm sure readers will agree that this is a very tough question.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, with the publication of <a href="http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efEventQ.cfm?MID=FE_Q_2018_P&amp;FID=42&amp;YEAR=2018" target="_blank">third-quarter political donor data by Elections Alberta</a>, the attention of the public has fallen on the significant fundraising effort for the United Conservative Party that has been made by members of the Motor Dealers Association of Alberta -- who, in fairness, also sell new cars, or, as many of us prefer to think of them, <em>pre-used automobiles</em>.</p>
<p>Blogger <a href="http://daveberta.ca/2018/10/alberta-ucp-fundraising-2018/" target="_blank">Dave Cournoyer noticed</a> that a so-called Political Action Committee (PAC) called Shaping Alberta's Future that was set up to support the United Conservative Party raised $275,000 in the third quarter of 2018 -- at least $170,000 of which was contributed by car dealers across the province.</p>
<p>It wasn't long after Elections Alberta published its quarterly report that a copy of a letter to car dealers from Andrew Robinson of Precision Hyundai in Calgary, chair of the Motor Dealers Association, was <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Nolais/status/1054539191533604864" target="_blank">circulating on social media</a>.</p>
<p>In it, Robinson told dealers that after a meeting with UCP Leader Jason Kenney on September 6, the members of their association's board had voted to contribute $100,000 to Shaping Alberta's Future "to assist in the UCP's third-party advertising campaign."</p>
<p>Shaping Alberta's Future has been running radio, TV, billboard and social media ads, some of them misleading, attacking the NDP government, Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Beyond that, its pitch to donors appears to indicate a plan <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/albertandp/pages/417/attachments/original/1540317813/Letter.pdf?1540317813" target="_blank">to defy Alberta's election laws</a>, not just to skirt them.</p>
<p>The PAC's operators, Robinson said in the letter, "suggest that each MDA dealership write a cheque in the amount of $5,000. All the dealers at the MDA board meeting committed to a contribution of $5,000 for each of their dealerships and they encourage all member dealers to do the same. …" The group's goal is to raise $1 million to attack the NDP and support Kenney before December 1, after which Alberta election spending laws take effect limiting advertisers to legally spending only $150,000 until the election campaign commences in the spring.</p>
<p>In return, Robinson said in his letter to his fellow car dealers, Kenney promised to:</p>
<ol>
<li>Immediately scrap the provincial carbon tax and join the coalition of Conservative provincial governments that are challenging the federal tax in court</li>
<li>Roll back the modest personal tax increases imposed by the NDP on wealthy Albertans</li>
<li>Freeze minimum wages "until other provinces catch up" and consider imposing lower differential minimums for young workers</li>
<li>Cancel <em>all</em> recent changes to the Labour Code, Occupational Health and Safety legislation and Workers Compensation Board -- such as provisions that give parents time off to nurse a gravely ill child or spouses to escape domestic violence</li>
<li>Roll back consumer protections to "rebalance the playing field" between dealers and car buyers, plus handing regulatory enforcement of car sales back from the government to the dealers themselves</li>
<li>Ban the importation of right-hand-drive vehicles from Asia</li>
</ol>
<p>By the sound of it, Kenney wasn't all that happy about news leaking out he'd promised in effect to roll back minimum wages for many workers, cancel important legal changes that protect working Albertans, and allow the foxes once again to enforce ethics in the car-sales henhouse.</p>
<p>Then there is the matter of those right-hand-drive collectors' vehicles -- of which there must be only a few hundred in the entire province.</p>
<p>At a guess, this might be a step toward banning all vehicles first sold in another market, reducing that small loophole of competition for car dealers. And who knows what they'll ask for from Kenney next.</p>
<p>As for joining a constitutionally hopeless legal action being conducted only as a political attack on the federal Liberal government, all one can say is that doesn't seem like an appropriate use of tax revenues, although it obviously passes muster in Conservative circles.</p>
<p>At any rate, notwithstanding the car dealers' largess, Kenney gingerly tried to edge away from Robinson's letter, although without, for obvious reasons, the intemperate accusations associated with the UCP's commentaries about similar reports by journalists.</p>
<p>A Postmedia columnist was<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/keith-gerein-rise-of-political-action-committees-a-troubling-trend-for-alberta-politics" target="_blank"> soon reassuring readers</a> that "a spokeswoman for the UCP caucus said the party disagrees with some of the letter's characterizations, and that Kenney has made no specific legislative promises."</p>
<p>Right. And presumably he also has no thoughts of implementing them without consulting the public they would impact, despite what he <a href="https://albertapolitics.ca/2018/10/ucp-leader-jason-kenney-drops-hints-of-radical-plans-during-policy-fan-dance-before-calgary-chamber-of-commerce/" target="_blank">recently told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce</a>.</p>
<p>The Postmedia column also indicated the president<em> </em>of the MDA, one of the group's paid employees, supported Kenney's interpretation. Denis Ducharme, interestingly, is a former three-term Conservative MLA for the Bonnyville-Cold Lake Riding and Tory Party Whip. His family owned Ducharme Motors Ltd., a Ford dealership in Bonnyville.</p>
<p>So, to get back to the original question … whom to believe?</p>
<p>The reputation of used-car salesmen, however unfair, is deeply embedded in in our cultural DNA. As for Kenney, for a year now he's been trying to roll back the odometer on the reputation of previous Alberta conservative governments that did business under a couple of different names for at least 70 years.</p>
<p>I don't know about you, but I believe the car dealers. But then, I'm credulous that way. I've owned the lousy cars to prove it.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Photo: Jason Kenney Instagram account</em></p>
<p><em>Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/">Support</a> rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/support%20sustainable%20media.png" /></a></em></p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 24 Oct 2018 04:00:07 +0000djclimenhaga152601 at https://rabble.cahttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/10/leaked-fundraising-letter-raises-questions-about-election-laws#commentsWildrose to members: Want to break a law? No problem! We'll just get elected and change ithttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2017/06/wildrose-members-want-break-law-no-problem-well-just-get
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/14530181256_5da9312d83_k.jpg?itok=eHxJ_BC8" width="1180" height="600" alt="Photo: Mack Male/flickr" title="Photo: Mack Male/flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>It turns out the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties have a plan for ensuring their constituency associations get to hang onto their assets when they merge into the United Conservative Party, notwithstanding an Alberta law that says they can't.</p>
<p>It's breathtaking in both its simplicity and its arrogance. They'll just change the law to suit themselves.</p>
<p>This isn't unheard of in the annals of politics, of course, but it's certainly brazen to just lay it out as the Wildrosers did yesterday in a memorandum to their constituency association boards, which was also sent to the party's general membership.</p>
<p>The memorandum was apparently intended to reassure members who might be considering voting against the merger plan, although its eye popping <em>chutzpah</em> may shock some Albertans who aren't party members.</p>
<p>Wildrose members have apparently been asking their party leaders what will happen to the money they donated to the constituency associations in their electoral districts if the two conservative parties "merge" by agreeing to form a new political entity, the UCP, as set out in their May 18 unification memorandum.</p>
<p>Their worry, sensibly enough, is that since party mergers are not actually allowed under Alberta's <a href="http://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=E02.cfm&amp;leg_type=Acts&amp;isbncln=9780779730315" target="_blank"><em>Elections Finances and Contributions and Disclosure Act</em></a>, it's not clear what would happen to the money they donated to a party that was slated to cease to exist. Under the Act, if a registered provincial political party is dissolved, the funds are held in trust by Elections Alberta and eventually passed on to the government of Alberta's general revenues.</p>
<p>Now, this part of Alberta's legislation was drafted and passed when the PCs were still the government of Alberta, and it was generally assumed they would be forever. If a party were to be dissolved, it was understood, it wouldn't be the Conservatives. It was also presumably accepted, quite rightly, that a donor to a political cause should have some reasonable certainty that his or her donation didn’t end up benefitting another political organization.</p>
<p>But that was then and this is now.</p>
<p>Accordingly, the Wildrose brain trust wrote its members, if the agreement in principle between the two parties is ratified on July 22 and then implemented, there are two "logical paths" that can be considered by Wildrose constituency associations, which are abbreviated as CAs in the memo.</p>
<p>The first, the memo says, is to "keep the CA's assets and go dormant (other than monthly bank service charges)." A short discussion of the process for filing records follows, then …</p>
<p><em>"In 2019, the United Conservative Party ('UCP') would form the government and change the law to permit mergers of political parties,"</em> the memo states. "At that time, the assets of the legacy Wildrose CA could be merged into the CA of the UCP in that constituency."</p>
<p>Don't worry! We'll be automatically elected. And when we are, we'll change the law to suit ourselves and to tilt the playing field in our direction. Easy-peasy!</p>
<p>My guess is that if a UCP government were elected, this formula would be applied to more than just this particular aspect of election financing. Indeed, Alberta would most likely say goodbye to the ban on corporate and union donations implemented by the NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley. This would certainly not be out of character with the self-interest, arrogance and entitlement evident in the Wildrose memo.</p>
<p>The other alternative, the memo goes on, would be to "transfer the CA's assets to the Wildrose Party and de-register the Wildrose CA."</p>
<p>"It is also possible that in time the UCP would be able to attain such financial strength that it could afford to transfer a like amount of cash to the UCP CA in that constituency," this section of the memo says. "There could be no guarantee of that, however, given that the UCP will need all of its money for the next two years to prepare for and run a general election campaign."</p>
<p>In fact, as the memorandum then indicates, the party has in mind using both stratagems, depending on which makes the most financial sense in the circumstances. "The first course above may be more suitable for Wildrose CAs with larger net assets; the second course may be more suitable for CAs with little or no assets."</p>
<p>The memorandum closes by urging Wildrose Party members to ratify the agreement in principle with Jason Kenney's PCs on July 22. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean's name does not appear on the email. Instead, the memorandum is attributed to James Cole, the party's treasurer, and Brandon Swertz, its fundraising VP. Both were Wildrose representatives on the parties' unity discussion group.</p>
<p>One wonders what Revenue Canada, which administers this provincial tax break, will have to say about this. The deduction for political donations is designed not merely to support the democratic process in Canada, but to ensure that money donated by Canadians goes to political parties those donors wish to support.</p>
<p>Many contributors to the Wildrose and PC parties would not want to see their contributions go either to the other party, or a party dominated by members of another group with which they profoundly disagree. Many Canadians would argue that what is discussed in the Wildrose memo would be a serious misapplication of the federal government's policy on political deductions. And -- who knows? -- Ottawa might have some kindly advice about that, being concerned with the rule of law and the like.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mastermaq/14530181256/in/photolist-o8YYEu-4aioVq-855sVa-nTKnWf-qifRMV-MiuWW-pc1ir-iY9Bv7-vZG3d-iY9JTy-iY9D5Q-iY7WMq-iY5EBp-iY5Mia-iY7PxA-pDxBay-iY9tB1-aAhBck-pDiiZP-7MbqVz-iY7Dr3-q2MkoE-w24Kj4-iY9vHf-iY9nV1-dJNXiQ-iY5yic-5GwSNY-5GsALp-BKXidG-5GsCAv-5GsCUa-s55Bu-5GszgP-5GwUG5-5GwRyq-5gLcyx-Btq1rm-Miws1-2fAqRe-5GsCgM-qiGUh9-pn6jxD-pDzGwz-Miu4W-5GwSYE-qyuDhB-SWuCin-TPDpSY-pQEWpi" target="_blank">Mack Male/flickr</a></em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank">Please chip in</a> to keep stories like these coming.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" style="height:30px; width:120px" /></a></p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 07 Jun 2017 16:18:21 +0000djclimenhaga131861 at https://rabble.cahttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2017/06/wildrose-members-want-break-law-no-problem-well-just-get#commentsPremier Rachel Notley's NDP wins Alberta's first-quarter fundraising sweepstakes, continuing trend from 2016https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2017/04/premier-rachel-notleys-ndp-wins-albertas-first-quarter
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/eleab.png?itok=yz-Fao7C" width="1180" height="600" alt="Elections Alberta Logo (Elections Alberta)" title="Image: Elections Alberta" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Alberta's New Democratic Party outraised each of the province's other political parties in the first quarter of 2017, ended March 31.</p>
<p>This is not the first time this has happened since the New Democrat government led by Premier Rachel Notley was elected in May 2015 and, promising to take corporate and union money out of electoral politics, swiftly passed tough political financing legislation that allowed donations only from individuals.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the latest numbers from Elections Alberta do suggest the law is working essentially as advertised -- although, of course, we don't know how much corporate money is flowing into political slush funds for right-wing parties proudly labelled political action committees by their operators.</p>
<p>According to the reports published yesterday by the provincial elections agency, the NDP raised $373,060.23 in the quarter, compared to consolidated donations of $281,606.85 for the Wildrose Party and $226,572.21 for the PCs. (Consolidated reports count donations to constituency associations as well as the party. In the case of the NDP, all donations go to the party.)</p>
<p>We can only speculate on whether a unified right-wing party could collect the same level of support from former supporters of both conservative parties, although, given their traditional differences and the discomfort of many PCs with the direction their party is likely to take under the leadership of social conservative Jason Kenney, this seems unlikely.</p>
<p>The Alberta Liberal Party, with a leadership contest in its near future, raised $47,959.83 in the quarter, the Alberta Party took in a consolidated $14,070.49, which must have been a disappointment for leader Greg Clark, and the Green Party of Alberta was given consolidated donations of $5,192.50.</p>
<p>Revenue totals for all of 2016 lined up in the same order:</p>
<p>NDP – $2.3 million<br />
WRP – $1.5 million<br />
PC – $1 million<br />
ALP – $184,700<br />
AP – $90,100<br />
Greens – $28,000</p>
<p>It would probably be reading too much into these latest numbers to suggest that they mean Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is a little more popular than his rival Kenney, or that the PCs still haven't really figured out how to raise money after thriving on huge corporate donations for generations.</p>
<p>The reasons people make political contributions are more nuanced and complicated than such calculations suggest.</p>
<p>If the latest numbers show anything it's how much support there is for the NDP, notwithstanding the prevailing narratives of both the opposition parties and the mainstream media.</p>
<p>To repeat an old line from past reports of this sort, readers and watchers of various far-right social media sites who see Communists hiding under almost every bed and park bench in Alberta will be disappointed to learn the Communist Party brought in no donations at all once again in the first quarter of 2017. Nor did the Alberta First Party, Alberta Social Credit and the Reform Party of Alberta.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on either side of Alberta, the conservative party in British Columbia that is known as <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/dont-expect-bc-reform-bill-to-curb-cash-for-access/article34208494/" target="_blank">the Liberals</a> and the conservative party in Saskatchewan called the <a href="http://ipolitics.ca/2017/04/19/how-saskatchewan-does-cash-for-access-in-broad-daylight/" target="_blank">Saskatchewan Party</a> continue to raise huge amounts of corporate cash by selling access to their leaders.</p>
<p><em>My blog at AlbertaPolitics.ca remains inaccessible as we continue to work to get it back on line. Bear with us! It will return one of these days.</em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" style="height:30px; width:120px" /></a></em></p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 20 Apr 2017 04:30:53 +0000djclimenhaga130021 at https://rabble.cahttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2017/04/premier-rachel-notleys-ndp-wins-albertas-first-quarter#commentsBrian Jean makes it clear, any new Alberta conservative party will be the Wildrose Partyhttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2017/02/brian-jean-makes-it-clear-any-new-alberta-conservative-party-wil
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/brian_jean_april_28_2015.jpg?itok=I4h87_b6" width="1180" height="600" alt="Brian Jean" title="Brian Jean" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>In case you're still wondering how this unite-the-right thing is supposed to work, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has clarified matters for you.</p>
<p>The party that emerges when the dust has settled will be the Wildrose Party, he told the world earlier this week. The Progressive Conservatives will be no more -- although, certainly, the "new" Wildrose party (which will not be new at all, of course) will soon try to rebrand itself "conservative."</p>
<p>Jean's refreshing honesty is important, because up to now all would-be unite-the-righters -- including Jason Kenney, who is <a href="https://tomstringham.shinyapps.io/pc_delegate_tracker/" target="_blank" title="Tory Delegate Tracker" rel="nofollow">all but certain</a> to become the PC leader on March 18 in Calgary -- have been pretending that what emerges after the next step in his double reverse hostile takeover would be a merger of Alberta's two principal conservative parties.</p>
<p>For his part, Kenney has claimed what results will be an entirely new party, although he has not explained how that could happen over the objections of the Wildrose leadership, or what would happen to the estimated $1.5 million in PC constituency bank accounts and candidate trusts that <a href="http://daveberta.ca/2017/01/alberta-pc-wildrose-conservative-leadership/" target="_blank" title="Tory Constituency Cash" rel="nofollow">Daveberta.ca has reported</a> would have to be forfeited if the party was dissolved. The Wildrose Party would not lose as much, because it quickly spends most of the funds it raises.</p>
<p>So, despite the efforts of other Wildrosers to say it ain't so -- Finance Critic Derek Fildebrandt, for example, <a href="https://twitter.com/Dfildebrandt/status/829090420453842944" target="_blank" title="Fildebrandt Tweet" rel="nofollow">Tweeted this week</a> that "unification should respect both Wildrose &amp; PC members as equals" and called for negotiations closed to the media -- for the reasons Jean pointed out, it cannot easily be so.</p>
<p>Jean made his clarifying statement while attending a Wildrose Party town hall meeting in Camrose on Monday. He told participants that if unification happens, it will be under the Wildrose structure, and furthermore that he will be a candidate to run the united party.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/albertas-right-will-only-unite-under-wildrose-framework-brian-jean-says" target="_blank" title="Jean in Camrose" rel="nofollow">a media report</a>, Jean told participants in the forum that joining up with the Tories "is a small price to pay if we can have Wildrose as the legal framework for the conservative movement going forward."</p>
<p>And while the Wildrose Party has divisions of its own, as evidenced by constant rumours of factional warfare within the Opposition legislative caucus, it is hard to see how this could be any different without the consent of the Wildrose leader.</p>
<p>This presumably means the PCs under Kenney or anyone else are stuck with this reality if they decide to proceed with this union of unlike minds. At least, not without a Wildrose coup to depose Jean, and that would likely take too much time.</p>
<p>So if Alberta's conservatives move to union -- red Tories, progressive conservatives and the like take note -- it will be as members of a new, possibly even more radical, version of the Wildrose Party that emerges as Alberta's new "conservative" political entity.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank" title="AlbertaPolitics.ca" rel="nofollow">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Please chip in</a> to keep stories like these coming.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></p>
</p></div></div></div>Thu, 09 Feb 2017 05:57:07 +0000djclimenhaga127639 at https://rabble.caAlberta Liberals launch leadership race as Tory contest takes an acrimonious turnhttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2017/01/alberta-liberals-launch-leadership-race-tory-contest-takes-acrim
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/naidoo.jpeg?itok=qROpT8rJ" width="1180" height="600" alt="Nirmala Naidoo" title="Nirmala Naidoo" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Optimistically billing themselves "the common sense centre," Alberta's provincial Liberal Party launched its contest yesterday to find a permanent replacement for interim Leader David Swann, the party's sole MLA.</p>
<p>The slogan for the Alberta Liberal leadership race -- which will run from today until March 31 -- is definitely better than anything the Alberta Progressive Conservatives have come up for their effort to replace their interim Leader, Ric McIver, which alert readers will recall is also under way.</p>
<p>As an aside, it must be noted that the governing New Democratic Party does not have a leadership race under way at the moment, seeing as its leader, Premier Rachel Notley, cannot be accused of having botched the last Alberta provincial election on May 5, 2015.</p>
<p>Nor does the Opposition Wildrose Party, although a substantial number of Wildrose members seem to be preoccupied with figuring out <em>how to get rid of</em> Leader Brian Jean.</p>
<p>Regardless, getting back to the point, the Liberal slogan is as follows: <em>"Our Alberta. Your Choice."</em></p>
<p>This makes it the opposite of what, it is said here, the Tories are really thinking, to wit: <em>"Your Alberta. Our Choice."</em> The PC race is scheduled to end with the elevation of candidate Jason Kenney to the leadership on the first ballot on March 18. There are three other candidates in the Tory race, whose names all escape me at the moment.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Liberals' disastrous last leader -- Raj Sherman, who was chosen back in 2011 -- the party has only one member in the provincial Legislature, Swann, who often sounds a lot like a New Democrat.</p>
<p>But to give the Liberals credit, party President Karen Sevcik tacitly acknowledged the reality of the party's recent lack of success in the press release, noting that the party's plan is to "choose a leader with the skills and vision necessary to deliver our message to Albertans."</p>
<p>No one says that will be easy. But no one should completely discount this, either. If Alberta voters have proved anything in the past couple of years, it is that they are not all conservatives and their mood is highly volatile.</p>
<p>The Liberal news release did not name any candidates or possible candidates, although it indicated applications will start being processed at once, and candidates will therefore be named soon.</p>
<p>However, at least three high-profile potential candidates are known to be seriously contemplating a run for the Liberal leadership: in alphabetical order, St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, Calgary lawyer and party VP David Khan, and former Calgary TV journalist Nirmala Naidoo.</p>
<p>The PC leadership race, meanwhile, seems to have taken a nasty turn.</p>
<p>On Sunday, as your blogger travelled to our nation's capital for business unrelated to this blog, party organizer Alan Hallman, a volunteer on Kenney's campaign, was expelled from the party for tweeting that other PC supporters were "assholes."</p>
<p>I apologize to readers for using this rough word, by the way. But as I used to tell my journalism students: <em>"If it's news, you should spell it out. If it isn't, don't use it."</em> Having painted myself into that corner years ago, I had no choice in the event but to spell the word correctly.</p>
<p>Regardless, Hallman has now been <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alan-hallman-booted-pc-party-1.3936999" target="_blank" title="Hallman Out" rel="nofollow">tossed out</a> of the party for a year and has deleted his Twitter account.</p>
<p>For his part, Kenney first defended Hallman -- as well he should have, <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/news/jason-kenney-finally-says-sorry-to-albertas-deputy-premier-for-a-hole-email-gaffe" target="_blank" title="Kenney Lukaszuk Characterization" rel="nofollow">having called</a> former PC deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk exactly the same thing in an email back in 2012 and then hitting the reply-all button -- and a little later fired him from his campaign.</p>
<p>I was only joshing readers, by the way, when I said I couldn't recall the other three PC candidates. They are Vermilion-Lloydminister MLA MLA Richard Starke, former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson.</p>
<p>All of them appear to be dedicated to preserving the progressive in Progressive Conservative, and therefore they have the moneybags of the provincial conservative movement ranged against them. This is why I am so confident Kenney, a former cabinet minister and confidant of former prime minister Stephen Harper, will promptly win the PC contest.</p>
<p>The winner of the race to become new Alberta Liberal leader will be announced in Calgary on June 4. Before that, debates are scheduled to be held in Calgary on April 8 and Edmonton on May 6, followed by online voting from May 27 to June 3.</p>
<p><strong>NDP tops 4th quarter and full-year 2016 fundraising results</strong></p>
<p>Elections Alberta has now released Alberta political parties fundraising results for the fourth quarter, Oct. 1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2016. Fundraising results for the quarter and the full year are as follows:<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Q4</strong></p>
<p>NDP – $798,166<br />WRP – $511,668<br />PC – $218,793<br />ALP – $85,931<br />AP – $32,612<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>2016</strong></p>
<p>NDP – $2 million<br />WRP – $1.8 million<br />PC – $399,814<br />ALP - $211,927<br />AP – $82,394<em></em></p>
<p><em>I copied these numbers in a darned hurry sitting on an uncomfortable chair in a hotel room. Any errors of transcription or rounding are, of course, the fault of the hotel. DJC</em></p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank" title="AlbertaPolitics.ca" rel="nofollow">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></em></p>
</p></div></div></div>Tue, 17 Jan 2017 03:07:41 +0000djclimenhaga127415 at https://rabble.caLid's still on the unite-the-right soup the Wildrose Party's leader is cooking up, but there are hints about the recipehttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2017/01/lids-still-on-unite-right-soup-wildrose-partys-leader-cooking-th
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/brian_jean_0.jpg?itok=v8CyVAZU" width="1180" height="600" alt="Photo: Sergei ~ 5of7/flickr" title="Photo: Sergei ~ 5of7/flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>As 2017 begins, we still await the details of Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean's alternative plan to unite the right.</p>
<p>All we're supposed to know is that it presumably involves him, and not Jason Kenney or some other nominal Progressive Conservative, leading the charge against the NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley in the next provincial general election.</p>
<p>The Wildrose Party is still cooking up their launch strategy, and their only comment is that they won't yet comment. Naturally, idle hands being the Devil's workshop, this leads to idle speculation on the part of bloggers.</p>
<p>To wit: it is said here we can catch a glimpse of the broad outlines of Jean's thinking from a "completely confidential" email he sent to some of his closest advisers the night after the Liberal Party of Canada led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knocked off former prime minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives in the 2015 federal election.</p>
<p>It must have been a bleak moment. The Wildrose Party was still reeling from the unexpected NDP victory in the May 5, 2015, provincial election -- hardly an endorsement of their platform or their political skills. That blow was all the more painful, I imagine, in that so many commentators had imagined they would be the beneficiaries of the obvious public dissatisfaction with the PCs, then led by the late Jim Prentice.</p>
<p>No sooner had the Wildrosers suffered through that catastrophe than the federal politician and party had fallen at the feet of the Liberal they hated the most: Justin Trudeau, who for months the target of their jibes he was just not ready.</p>
<p>The dream of another father and son, Ernest and Preston Manning, of a Canada reduced to a U.S.-style two-party system dominated by conservative instincts and edging ever further to the right had apparently just been blown to smithereens by the young man they'd disparaged for months for being a drama teacher.</p>
<p>Despite those setbacks, Jean's imagination was churning with ideas and brimming with optimism on the day after.</p>
<p>In the memo, entitled "Monday's Federal Election," Jean started by setting the scene: "Liberals federally. NDP provincially. People are afraid. Let's use that to raise tons of cash, kill the pcs and get new members."</p>
<p>He called for rebranding the stale old unite-the-right idea, perhaps as "Unite the Fiscal Right" -- an idea that may sound a little bloodless, but anticipated the possibility that at least one competing player on the unite-the-right scene would turn out to be a social conservative with attitudes bound to trouble almost as many modern Alberta conservatives as voters further to the left.</p>
<p>In addition, Jean proposed the alternative "Unite Common Sense Fiscal Conservatives" as a slogan, which sounds a little too much like something NDP supporters affiliated with the United Church might come up with to appeal very much to Wildrose foot soldiers.</p>
<p>The memo suggested giving PC members Wildrose "trade ins" on their memberships -- an idea alert readers will recall the party tried without gaining much traction. Jean also proposed a province-wide tour with meetings of invited PC and Wildrose members to be chaired by himself, which was also tried.</p>
<p>Other ideas put forward in the Oct. 20, 2015, memo have yet to be implemented, or at least much talked about, and could well form all or part of Jean's "common sense" effort to unite the right. These included:</p>
<ul>
<li>Letting members vote to choose a new party name or keep the old one. This may be easier said than done because of Elections Alberta's rules against choosing names too much like those of other parties. But sources close to the party say a new name remains a key part of the 2017 plan.</li>
<li>Picking the strongest policies from both parties and merging them into one Wildrose constitutional document whether the PCs like it or not. This would provide an opportunity to "clean up our policies in one shot,” Jean observed revealingly. He also noted: "We don't need them to agree on anything and I really believe most people from PC background will be relieved to get rid of old boys club leaders."</li>
<li>Going negative on the PCs. "We should even do a 'why would you want the PC leaders that took us here,'" he mused. "Let's just steal their customers. … Discourage anyone from being a member. Be ashamed to be a PC. Rip it up. Open our doors both to MLAs from PC and members. With logical steps a new party will have to go thru."</li>
</ul>
<p>The last point may have made sense back in October 2015. But, as the saying goes, he who hesitates is lost. Alas for Jean and his Wildrose loyalists, that train has now left the platform, thanks to the younger Manning and Harper, who keep turning up like the proverbial bad pennies. Not only is the train gone, of course, but Kenney is aboard, along with his portmanteau full of bad social conservative ideas.</p>
<p>Jean may seem safer than the social conservative, social media obsessed Kenney. That may be why more conservatively minded Albertans gave him an edge over Kenney in pollster <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/3143736/unite-the-right-poll-albertans-prefer-brian-jean-to-jason-kenney-as-leader/" target="_blank" title="Janet Brown Poll" rel="nofollow">Janet Brown's recent public opinion survey</a> of which of the two potential leaders of the right has the most support.</p>
<p>Jean's problem remains Jean's party. As <em>Calgary Herald</em> political columnist <a href="http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/braid-new-wildrose-strategy-for-uniting-the-right-dump-the-pcs" target="_blank" title="Briad on Wildorse Liabilities" rel="nofollow">Don Braid observed</a> back in May 2016, "your average urban PC supporter views Wildrose adherents as scary right-wing nutbars, the demented heirs of Social Credit."</p>
<p>Of course, with Kenney at the head of the PCs -- united with the Wildrose Party or on his own -- those urban PC voters might quickly start to view the Tories in much the same light. Which is why, despite the strong conservative results in Brown's poll, public attitudes could change as a provincial election nears.</p>
<p>We'll see about that, just as we'll eventually see the details of Jean's refined thinking about how to unite the right under his banner.</p>
<p>Either that, or the Wildrose leader will change his mind and <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/2016/12/wildrose-shadow-shuffle-leaves-derek-fildebrandt-finance-brian-jean-rumoured-eyeing-shuffle-off-wood-buffalo/" target="_blank" title="Shuffle Off to (Wood) Buffalo?" rel="nofollow">decide after all</a> to run to be mayor of Fort McMurray in October.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank" title="AlbertaPolitics.ca" rel="nofollow">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/5of7/17332310542/in/photolist-spAC5o-3S9BC-d3kLK-gSNwc-894t9D-zpCP5-DLPWhz-uwomWx-L4T2ws-L4RNk9-L4RN7U-s7vSnZ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Sergei ~ 5of7/flickr</a></em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></em></p>
</p></div></div></div>Tue, 10 Jan 2017 06:01:50 +0000djclimenhaga127346 at https://rabble.caHappy New Year! Here are Alberta Diary's top 10 political predictions for 2017https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2017/01/happy-new-year-here-are-alberta-diarys-top-10-political-predicti
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/tom_mulcair_1.jpeg?itok=pi6TjRpi" width="1180" height="600" alt="Image: Wikimedia Commons" title="Image: Wikimedia Commons" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p><em>Happy New Year!</em></p>
<p>This New Year we're going to keep it simple and start off 2017 with Alberta Diary's Top 10 political predictions for the year ahead of us. Here they are:</p>
<ol> </ol>
<p>1. Thanks to whomever replaces him -- <em>Charlie Angus, c'mon down!</em> -- Thomas Mulcair will start to look pretty good as federal NDP leader. It'll be too late, of course.</p>
<p>2. Jason Kenney will win the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party on the first ballot in Calgary on March 18. The PC Party is not doomed, however, despite Kenney's plan to dismantle it and merge it with the Wildrose Opposition, because many Wildrosers will be unconvinced by his rhetoric and that of his backers that resistance is futile.</p>
<p>3. World oil prices will rise more than expected in 2017 ... but not enough more to usher back the out-of-control boom so many Albertans long for -- leaders of the two principal Opposition parties excepted, of course.</p>
<p>4. Despite several polls predicting an NDP victory in British Columbia, Liberal Christy Clark will surprise everyone and win a third term as premier of B.C. during the provincial election scheduled for May 9, 2017.</p>
<p>5. Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley will reshuffle her cabinet early in the New Year and invite former Calgary Tory MLA Sandra Jansen to join. The NDP will continue to gain traction for its policies and see modest growth in its popularity for this effort.</p>
<p>6. U.S. President Donald Trump will commit the first of the unconstitutional and/or criminal acts that will lead to his impeachment in 2019.</p>
<p>7. To both federal Opposition parties' distress, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will remain stubbornly popular with voters in all parts of Canada, even here in Alberta after work commences on the Trans Mountain pipeline and Line 3 expansions.</p>
<p>8. Neither the Wildrose nor the PC Opposition parties will break out of their approximate tie in the polls, with all three major parties sitting around 30 per cent through most of 2017. However, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean will remain slightly more popular with conservative voters than Kenney.</p>
<p>9. Both the Wildrose Party, which will act first, and the PC Party will try to change their names to "Conservative Party of Alberta" or something similar. Both, especially the Wildrosers, will encounter resistance from Elections Alberta. If they fail, both will then try to call themselves the Unity Party. Both will reject your blogger's suggestion they rename their parties Thing 1 and Thing 2.</p>
<p>10. Given their choice among 13 candidates, including an anti-abortion crusader (Brad Trost), two overt alt-right trolls (Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander), an economic nutcase (Maxime Bernier) and a distinguished Parliamentarian around whom Canadians could rally with enthusiasm (Michael Chong), federal Conservatives will choose the economic nutcase.</p>
<p>Readers are welcome to take note and write in December 2017 to remind me of how many of these predictions I got wrong. <em></em></p>
<p><em>These predictions also appear on David Climenhaga's blog, AlbertaPolitics.ca.</em></p>
<p><em> <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Please chip in</a> to keep stories like these coming.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></p>
<p><em>Image: Wikimedia Commons<br /></em></p>
</p></div></div></div>Sun, 01 Jan 2017 05:35:38 +0000djclimenhaga127268 at https://rabble.caWhat are the details of Wildrose Leader Brian Jean's better way to unite the right?https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2016/12/what-are-details-wildrose-leader-brian-jeans-better-way-to-unite
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/brianjean_jpg.jpg?itok=b6F4utpW" width="1180" height="600" alt="Brian Jean" title="Brian Jean" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean keeps saying he's got a better plan to unite Alberta's right than Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney's much-publicized double reverse hostile takeover of the two Alberta conservative parties.</p>
<p>"I think that our plan is, quite frankly, much more palatable to both sets of members," <a href="http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/12/15/derek-fildebrandt-explains-why-hes-calling-for-a-wildrose-pc-merger" target="_blank" title="Jean Interview on Unite Plan" rel="nofollow">Jean told a reporter last week</a>. The trouble is, as the reporter went on to explain, the Opposition leader "provided few details."</p>
<p>So far, in fact, Jean doesn't even seem to have provided many <em>hints</em> of how his plan might work, beyond telling the Postmedia reporter the two parties might find ways to co-operate without a formal merger.</p>
<p>Or did he?</p>
<p>Back in May, <a href="http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/brian-jean-says-wildrose-must-broaden-its-appeal-potentially-under-a-new-name" target="_blank" title="May Name Registration Report" rel="nofollow">Jean revealed</a> his party had registered the names "Alberta Conservative Party Association" and "Conservative Party of Alberta Association," either of which in theory could do political business under the name Conservative. "Everything, including the party name, can be put to a vote, as long as the rules are properly followed," the Opposition leader told a reporter at the time.</p>
<p>Well, a pretty little pink flower whose petals blow away in the fall probably isn't the best thing after which to name a party that complains incessantly about supposedly delicate lefty "snowflakes" insisting on "political correctness."</p>
<p>Anyway, everyone on the political right no matter how extreme their views wants to cash in on the solid old "conservative" brand, with its implications of steadiness and occupancy of the middle of the road. Indeed, appearing to be centre right could very well turn out to be essential if a conservative party, united or otherwise, is to topple the Alberta NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley.</p>
<p>It was also suggested at the time that such a new name would show more clearly how the Wildrose Party was aligned with the federal Conservative Party of Canada, then led by Stephen Harper, which was certainly the case then, and is now.</p>
<p>But many observers presumed back then that all Jean had in mind was keeping the option of having the Wildrose officially become a Conservative Party, as Preston Manning's Canadian Reform-Alliance Party managed to do back in the early Zeroes, in the event a deal couldn't be worked out with the flagging PCs.</p>
<p>All that said, I now hear a buzz that just such a name change is exactly what Jean is proposing within the secret chambers of the Wildrose Party as his better way to unite the right.</p>
<p>In other words -- so goes the buzz -- Jean is privately suggesting to his caucus that the old Wildrose name needs to be abandoned as quickly as possible so they can transfer their allegiance in the Legislature to the new, appropriately branded, political entity.</p>
<p>The trick, so the story goes, would be to do it fast enough for Jean and his 'Rosies to steal a march on Kenney and his plan to seize the Conservative brand.</p>
<p>This, the rumour says, is now being presented to Wildrose Caucus members not as a way to keep the PCs from using the name, as I think pretty well all commentators assumed last spring, but as the way to create a completely new Alberta conservative party that they're in charge of.</p>
<p>At least four Wildrose MLAs who are just now starting to suss out the leader's plan are rumoured to be mad enough about it to have threatened to quit and sit as Independents. These would-be Independents -- all far enough to the Alberta right to be called, as a wag of my acquaintance puts it, the "Alb-right" -- view the scheme as a betrayal of Wildrose grassroots principles.</p>
<p>Others in the fractious caucus are said to be looking for a way to align themselves with Kenney's effort as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>Well, if a few newly independent Alb-right MLAs then declared themselves to be Kenney Conservatives, this could have the interesting result of giving Kenney a legislative home even in the event he lost the leadership race in March to one of the three candidates who wants to preserve the old <em>Progressive</em> Conservatives. (Let’s call them <em>the Progressive Preservatives</em>).</p>
<p>Negotiations are said to be discreetly under way, just as happened before "The Great Betrayal" on Dec. 14, 2014, when then Wildrose leader Danielle Smith led nine of her MLAs into the PC government headed at the time by premier Jim Prentice. Manning was believed to be cracking the whip behind them all, to the eventual great displeasure of the Wildrose base.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CPA.jpg" target="_blank" title="Application to Register" rel="nofollow">application to register</a> the new party association was filed back in November 2015, as a simple corporate search will show. The paperwork shows an eclectic mix of Wildrosers, not all of whom may be in complete agreement with Jean any more.</p>
<p>This, of course, all presumes Elections Alberta would let them do what's being suggested, which is no sure thing. As blogger <a href="http://daveberta.ca/2016/05/conservative-party-of-alberta/" target="_blank" title="Cournoyer on Elections Alberta Rules" rel="nofollow">Dave Cournoyer pointed out</a> on his Daveberta.ca blog back in May, Alberta election legislation prohibits party names <em>"likely to be confused with the name or abbreviation of (another) registered party."</em></p>
<p>Surely it is unlikely Elections Alberta would allow a <em>Progressive Conservative Party</em> and a <em>Conservative Party</em> on the same ballot.</p>
<p>Such an eventuality, of course, is presumably why someone has <a href="http://daveberta.ca/2016/11/jason-kenney-unite-alberta-party/" target="_blank" title="Registration of Unite Alberta Party" rel="nofollow">registered the name "Unite Alberta Party” with Elections Alberta</a> -- although it seems to me that name too could be confused with "Alberta Party."</p>
<p>Well, this is idle pre-Christmas chatter. But what else is a blogger to do when the only comment he can get from Wildrose officials to queries about when Jean will announce his plan is, <em>"No comment. :)"</em>?</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank" title="AlbertaPolitics.ca" rel="nofollow">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism.</em></p>
<p><em> <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></em></p>
</p></div></div></div>Mon, 19 Dec 2016 06:01:15 +0000djclimenhaga127174 at https://rabble.caAlberta right now: The state of the province, its parties and its oil after one year without Stephen Harperhttps://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2016/10/alberta-right-now-state-province-its-parties-and-its-oil-after-o
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/notley-main-jpg.jpg?itok=7ap-rXnM" width="1180" height="600" alt="Rachel Notley " title="Rachel Notley " /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>It was so busy in political Alberta yesterday, those folks who were inclined to do so barely had time to celebrate the first anniversary of the defeat of the Harper government by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals in the 2015 federal election!</p>
<p>NDP Premier Rachel Notley gave her "state of the province” speech to a friendly, invited crowd in the lobby of the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, where she told Albertans that notwithstanding hard times, her government isn't about to cut health care or education funding. But spending in other areas, it was pretty clear, will be <em>constrained -- </em>just how constrained remains to be seen.</p>
<p>"We can handle the current dramatic drop in government revenue -- for a time," the premier said. "…That means we can protect health care and education … but that also means we are very unlikely to have headroom for major new spending proposals until recovery arrives."</p>
<p>She defended the province's carbon tax and the planned increases in the minimum wage -- which at least in theory should give voters enough time to get used to them and forget their present concerns by the time another election rolls around.</p>
<p>Holding the event in Calgary's concert hall -- instead of shuttling between annual bad lunches with the Chambers of Commerce in the province’s two largest cities -- ends a dreary tradition, hopefully forever, one that is seemingly designed by generations of PC leaders to reinforce the impression voters who own businesses count more than the rest of us.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, world oil prices surged yesterday -- the very thing the province's conservatives of various stripes hope not to have to endure just now -- on news that the Saudi Arabians were feeling upbeat. The price reached more than $53 U.S. a barrel, the highest since the summer of 2015.</p>
<p>If that trend holds, it's probably good news for the Notley Government and certainly good news for currently disgruntled and underemployed oil patch workers. We shall see -- resource prices have been known to be volatile, which is the key to understanding almost all of Alberta's problems, no matter who happens to be in power.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the NDP government also announced another year of tuition freezes, which with any luck should shore up their student vote -- if students get out to vote again in sufficient numbers to matter.</p>
<p>And then there was the reaction to that poll -- the one the <em>Calgary Herald</em> on Tuesday called "shocking" and "a knockout." If that sounded more like a theatre review to you, perhaps it should, as the numbers, which put the Progressive Conservatives far in the lead, were being used enthusiastically by Jason Kenney’s Postmedia fan club to make the dubious case their favoured PC leadership candidate "is bringing popularity to the PC party even as he suctions cash away from it."</p>
<p>Well, maybe. There are some flaws with that line of reasoning, even if there's nothing wrong with the poll -- which until another survey says the same thing must remain an outlier.</p>
<p>Still, assuming the numbers are basically right, they cannot be reassuring for the New Democrats.</p>
<p>According to the telephone survey of 1,513 adult Albertans by the Citizen Society Research Lab at Lethbridge College, which was in the field from from Oct. 1 to 8, the PCs with 38.4 per cent support are 13 points ahead of the second<em>-</em>place Wildrose Party, at 25.7 per cent. The poll places the NDP in third<em> place</em> with only 19.7 per cent province wide. It even shows the PCs leading in the Edmonton area, which is supposed to be an NDP stronghold.</p>
<p>The Wildrose Party led by Brian Jean won't like those numbers much more than Notley's NDP. However, despite Postmedia's cheerleading for Kenney, there are problems with the corporation's narrative.</p>
<p>Kenney's camp has been saying for weeks Alberta's right must unite or the NDP will defeat both major right-wing parties in the next general election -- and uniting the right, they say, is a job only Kenney can do.</p>
<p>As for that last point, maybe so. But if the PCs are polling at more than 38 per cent now, why would they need a divisive social conservative like Kenney in the lead, when they could win with, say, Sandra Jansen, Richard Starke or even Thomas Lukaszuk as leader?</p>
<p>As for <em>Herald</em> columnist Don Braid's claim that Kenney out-fund-raised all the real political parties in the past three months, remember what Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton had to say about Republican candidate Donald Trump last night: Just as many of Trump's answers can't be verified because he hasn't released his tax returns, Kenney's can’t be tested because they don’t have to be submitted to Elections Alberta.</p>
<p>Anyway, it's early days. The right-wing vote in Alberta is going to be as volatile as the price of a barrel of oil for a while yet, if only because it’s not yet clear which party or parties on the right will still be standing when the next election rolls around.</p>
<p>What seems clearer -- assuming, again, that these latest numbers are right -- is that the left-wing coalition that got the NDP elected in May 2015 is seriously fraying.</p>
<p>Note that the poll puts Alberta Liberal support at nine per cent -- far above where the Liberals were in the spring of 2015 and votes the NDP needs to stay in the game.</p>
<p>So forget about uniting the right for the moment. Maybe it's time to start talking about <em>uniting the left </em>again.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank" title="AlbertaPolitics.ca" rel="nofollow">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. <a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Chip in</a> to keep stories like these coming.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://secure.rabble.ca/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/donategreen.png" width="120" height="30" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
</p></div></div></div>Thu, 20 Oct 2016 05:21:34 +0000djclimenhaga126457 at https://rabble.ca